be rather than appear

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“Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.”
-Baltasar Gracian

“Heroism” or “warriorship” is in the DOING of something, not in the practice of something. You cant proclaim yourself a hero, others call you one for what you have done. I think Warriorship is much the same thing.

 

suburban warrior syndrome

Every once and a while, when I cycle through my “Warriorship Examination” phase, I like to resurrect this excellent article.

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By: Ethan Gilsdorf

Summary: From The Matrix to Harry Potter, heroic fantasy is hot stuff. These modern epics tap into our frustrated impulse to be 21st-century knights–and may even help unleash the workaday hero inside each of us.

A friend of mine is dissatisfied with the modern world–its strip malls and ATM machines, its speed limits and mediated experiences. “I would rather try my luck at a horde of orcs with a broad sword,” he says, “than pay the Visa bill and look for parking.”

He pines for days when life seemed to be constructed around heroic deeds rather than menial mouse clicks. Millions of others also long to escape into brave new worlds: Fantasy and science fiction are now front and center in our culture. Nine of the top 10 all-time, worldwide movie box-office kings are Lord of the Rings- or Harry Potter-based (or else conjure up rival science fiction/fantasy empires like Star Wars). Last year, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sold 12.2 million copies to become the biggest-selling book in the U.S. in 2003. Throw in piles of Xbox shoot-’em-up games, and you could say the geeks have inherited the Earth.

Why the surge in popularity? Legendary sociologist Norbert Elias suggested that in an increasingly structured society, fantasy books, games and movies create arenas for the “controlled decontrolling” of emotions. It’s not socially acceptable to duel that surly human resources director with a stapler gun at 20 paces, and destroying a castle with a trebuchet isn’t an option for the average white-collar worker. Instead, against a backdrop of magic and myth, heroic fantasy allows us to prove our mettle by saving some parallel world from easily identifiable bad guys.

Futuristic and magical scenarios now dominate because the cops-and-robbers thrillers and cowboys-and-Indians yarns of decades past just don’t fit in our “increasingly multiethnic, culturally relativistic and journalistically examined world,” says Gerard Jones, media scholar and author of Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes and Make-Believe Violence. No matter your politics, war stories or police stories just don’t offer the same release anymore. “We can still enjoy police fantasies, but even those bring in so many complex political and ethical issues now that most of us can’t really surrender to a wide-open good-guy vs. bad-guy fantasy in police garb. So stories of magic worlds, other planets and superheroes become our substitute.”

Escaping to another dimension is normal: Most people spend about half of their time daydreaming and fantasizing, says psychologist Steven Jay Lynn, professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton and co-author of The Monster in the Cave: How to Face Your Fear and Anxiety and Live Your Life. “Daydreams and fantasy play a vital role in everyday life,” he says. “They inspire us, regulate our moods and help us contemplate future possibilities.”

That includes the possibility of violence and even evil. Parents who crusade against felonious games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City may not want to hear it, but idolizing villains and identifying with the Darth Vaders and Lord Voldemorts can be liberating, says Jones. As children, play and fantasy let us practice what we will be later in life-as well as what we will never be. “Fantasies of physical conflict and danger have been branded ‘violent’ in recent decades by people who don’t trust or understand them, but they can be some of the most basic, most natural and most valuable tools a child can have for the hard work of growing up,” he says. Kids with the greatest anxiety about risk and the greatest reservations about exploring their own strength and destructive potential have the most urgent need for fantasy, Jones says.

But while children role-play to explore themselves, in adulthood the game changes. Grown-ups turn to fantasy for stress relief, Jones says. They also identify with make-believe heroes, seeing them as guides for self-improvement. Unfortunately, most shoot-’em-up games are so shallow that players gain no personal insight, says John Suler, a professor of psychology at Rider University in New Jersey and author of The Psychology of Cyberspace. He believes the most beneficial heroic narratives depict essential human struggles: betrayal, revenge and overcoming great odds. “In everyday living, we re-enact the classic conflicts and victories of the hero. We may not be slaying actual dragons, but the monsters in our lives and psyche pose no less a threat,” he says. “A good hero story or computer-mediated re-enactment crystallizes in a vivid and symbolic form the challenges we face in everyday life-and a really good story offers us ideas as to how to surmount those challenges.” Suler says games like Everquest and SimsOnline, which create a complex social structure and let players assume roles, can instruct us.

In Western culture, “how to be a hero” instruction has roots that go back to 12th century Norse sagas and ancient-Greek epic poems, points out University of Michigan Law School professor William Ian Miller, author of The Mystery of Courage. These legends taught both psychological and moral lessons, and pointed the way to bravery. “In Icelandic sagas, the character would say, ‘I have not yet done anything saga-like,’” Miller says. “This type of epic wasn’t just escape, but was designed to fantasize yourself into this action and this behavior.” These heroic narratives featured imperfect characters who accomplished great things, despite their flaws.

However, kids raised on Thor or Tolkien don’t predictably gravitate to modern-day “hero” jobs like policeman or firefighter. Nor can you ever guarantee who will act bravely in wartime, Miller says. Courage is learned by practicing it day by day-by speaking up when you get cut off in line, not by waiting until you come across a maiden tied to the railroad tracks. “You have to train yourself to be courageous,” Miller says. Taking small daily risks prepares us for unexpected tests of courage, and he worries that “the upper-middle-class disease of risk aversion”-meticulously organized playtimes, the rush to protect children from any potential conflict or harm-has deprived children of chances to test themselves.

Reality-TV programs like Jackass or Fear Factor, which do involve risk, don’t do much to foster real bravery, says marriage and family therapist Tina Tessina, author of It Ends With You: Grow Up and Out of Dysfunction. “Jumping out of a plane without a parachute, climbing Mount Everest, and other extreme sports can be used as a way to avoid real life responsibilities and feelings, and to get high on adrenaline,” says Tessina. The courage required in these televised tests of character-drinking blended pig parts before mobs of spectators, for example-are at best a temporary escape.

Yet because we yearn to be seen as bold, brave and courageous, we’ll take stupid risks to prove our worth. Psychologists Mark Leary and Kathleen Martin interviewed 300 adolescents on risk-taking behavior. About one-quarter said they’d driven recklessly in order to impress people, and one-third of the young men admitted performing reckless stunts in an attempt to look cool-everything from juggling knives and jumping off a bridge to riding on top of a car.

Some blame these faux-heroics on modern society, arguing that our culture just doesn’t offer enough opportunities for valor. That’s not strictly true-after September 11, firefighters and police officers were nearly elevated to the status of saints. They are the exception, though: For many of us, struggling with mundane jobs and tedious hassles, heroism on the scale of saving lives will never seem attainable. But that doesn’t make everyday quests any less important. It can be equally brave simply to stand up for what you believe in. “Quiet heroism is showing up for your child’s school play when it’s difficult to get off work, or being honest and ethical in the face of someone’s disapproval or scorn,” says Tessina. “That’s the kind of heroism that really counts in life.”

Ethan Gilsdorf (www.ethangilsdorf.com) is a freelance writer, critic and poet based in Paris.

 

defining terms

Alright, I have a moment to type.

It would be a fairly accurate statement to say that when I created this blog it was with the intention of coalescing my thoughts about, and refining my definition of, “Warriorship”.

While “Warriorship” is closely associated with the word “Warrior”, I am starting to come to the conclusion that they may have become two separate but closely related issues; perhaps too closely related. While one can be quantifiable, the other has become so nebulous that people training in what I define as “Wariorship” have come to believe that doing so makes them “Warriors” which I don’t believe is the case.

I am currently of the opinion that the term “Warrior”, as in “I am a Warrior”, is currently overused and misapplied. In my worldview, a “warrior” is a person who fights for their country, lord or master, or is at least a dedicated professional in a field of arms. Professional military personnel fit my definition, with the special operators on one end of the continuum and more mundane MOS personnel at the other. I would also include Law Enforcement Officers as existing on the outside fringe of possible inclusion. Currently the term is being applied to a wide range of people; athletes, new ager’s, martial artists, gun enthusiasts and the terminally Ill to name a few. Not to disparage any of these people, but while they may behave with the virtues of a warrior, or be training in the skills of a “Warrior”, defining yourself as a Warrior impresses me a Walter Mitty-ish fantasy. Harmless in most cases, admittedly, but with some disturbing exceptions as in the case discussed elsewhere in this blog.

“Warriorship” is a concept that doesn’t even have one  accepted definition. While the O.E.D. defines it as “1The craft or skill of military arts and science, see ‘warrior , most attempts to find a definition lead you to Carlos Castenada; Cogyam Trungpa and his Shambala philosophy, Joseph Campbell, Ninjutsu practitioners, New Age Druids, Native American culture and Bushido. While sharing some characteristics, there is no common definition between them.

So I guess Im going to add my definition to the mix. I define Warriorship as:

Warriorship
( War-ri-or-ship ) n. [OE. werreour, OF. werreour, guerreor, from guerre, werre, war. See War]

1. A state in which a person is training in the skills and traits possessed by those of the Warrior profession.

2. A philosophy based on the positive character and social traits of persons in the warrior profession.

At least thats my first hack at it. Any opinions or assistance in refining it will be appreciated.

I suppose that by my definition a person can be participating in “warriorship” if they are approaching training and life as more than a mere “hobbyist”. Someone going to a martial arts class two times a week isn’t participating. Someone who buys a handgun and wears 5.11 “operator clothes” and tactical boots isn’t participating. Just reading books and playing paintball isn’t enough.

Someone who looks at the entirety of life as “training in warriorship”, learning, mastering and incorporating into their personal lifestyle skills as varied as combat techniques; navigation, medicine, climbing/rappelling, driving, swimming, SCUBA, physical conditioning and countless others MAY be meeting my definition. However, my personal twist would include some sort of service to society, putting those skills to use.

The hazard lies in the ease by which a person practicing Warriorship as a lifestyle can fall into believing that they are the equivalent of a Warrior. I believe that many people who begin the pursuit in the first place are doing one to become the other in the first place.

more to come later…..

 

relics from the past found in my nightstand drawer

For a long time I have had the habit of maintaining notebooks. I think it started in my middle school years when the “ninja craze” was just heating up and I became fascinated with military and martial arts “stuff”. I used to fill them with “reference materials” lifted from books, magazines and military manuals. I would diligently copy information about poisonous plants, L-shaped ambushes and how to “take out” enemy sentries into these “little black books”. I always enjoyed the fantasy of finding some secret knowledge in a dusty book found buried in a corner of a library or under a pile of old magazines in a second hand bookstore and in hindsight perhaps this is a manifestation of that. Or perhaps this is one of the side effects of living out in the styx with no girls to chase or friends to play ball with.

As the years went by I would write short “posts” about my thoughts into these books. I recently came across a stack of these black, hardbound “blank books” in my nightstand drawer under a pile of holsters, old badges, military paraphernalia and Army FM’s.The most recent one has entries from when I was deployed to Bosnia Herzegovina. A passage I found in it says:

When I purchased this blank book I did so with the intention of writing my beliefs and ideas in it and through that process learn something about myself. Now that I have started I don’t really know what it is that I believe, I’ve read many books about ancient and modern philosophies, religions, psychology and myth but in the end I cannot determine if any of them have changed or influenced  who I am or if I just took from them what I always believed.

I guess that my current life view is similar to the eastern concept of the Tao. We all think of ourselves in individual terms…separate from each other and from the rest of the world. I tend to think of our existence as being manifestations of the same “reality”. From a college philosophy class, I remember watching a film where Joseph Campbell made an analogy to a light bulb. The bulb is a vessel for light, when the switch is thrown it illuminates. When it is turned off the light vanishes but the energy..the “potential” is still “out there”. Do you identify with the “bulb”…your physical manifestation? Or do you identify with “the light”? That same current that runs through all of our “bulbs”? When our “light” goes out the energy doesn’t “go” anywhere because it never really “came” in the first place. We are just material manifestations that come and go.

I’m realizing that there is going to be a rambling quality to this writing endeavor, but I’m going to just let that go…it’s funny how I’m sitting here spouting off all this highminded stuff but inside I know that I can be just as jealous, insecure, hesitating and brooding as the next guy…

…All my life I’ve wanted to be a “good soldier”. I’ve read comics and books about war. I’ve watched countless action movies. Under it all there’s a part of me that wants to prove something to myself. I’ve jumped out of planes, climbed cliffs and done some “stupid dangerous” things. I’m still not certain if I did these things for enjoyment or simply to spit in the face of my own insecurities. Either way I did enjoy the adventure and in the end it has lead my life in a direction that I find fulfillment in….”

I wont belabor you with the rest…the reason I even bring this stuff up is because, when I think of it, blogging can be much the same sort of thing as this journal writing. By posting things that interest you and through writing about things that you believe in you start to reach a “critical mass” of posts that can become a “snapshot” of your “self”.

 

what they say…what it means

This is a repost from early 2009 that seems to be getting some traffic recently…go figure.

Due to the popularity of “reality television” shows like Cops, Wildest Police Videos, Stories of the Highway Patrol and the rest, many people are being exposed to the “language of the street”.

In this language there are many phrases and customs that the unitiated may have difficulty understanding. Some viewers may become confused by the actions of officers when the person they are dealing with seems to sound perfectly reasonable.

Therefore, as a public service I am providing this easy to understand guide. With it the viewer can have a better understanding of what exactly the police officer and his “customer” are saying to each other. Be reassured that in most cases each party knows exactly what the other is saying:

When he/she says——–He/she really means:

That’s not mine!——-That’s mine.

I don’t have my ID on me.——- Im going to lie about my identity.

I didn’t do anything!——- I did it.

I swear to God!——-I’m about to lie.

That’s not my purse——- I have drugs in my purse.

I don’t know his name/I know him as…——-I’m about to lie about my friends identity because he probably has a warrant.

I swear on my child’s life!——- I’m about to lie.

I’m just driving around——- I just came from a drug house.

I don’t have my drivers license on me——- My drivers license is suspended or revoked. The judge took my license away from me.

 I’m not going to lie to you officer!——-I’m about to lie.

I did what? What did you say?——- Im trying to think up a lie.

These aren’t my pants!——-That’s my dope in the pocket.

“As far as I know” (usually in response to a question about warrants, licenses, presence of illegal items)——- I don’t know if the warrant was issued yet. I can’t remember when the protective order expires.  I’m unsure if the suspension took effect yet.

I swear on my mothers grave!——-I’m about to lie.

I paid for that!——- I stole that.

I just got paid/ I won it at the casino/I just sold my car.——-That’s my drug sales money.

Why are you hasslin’ me?——- Why do I keep getting caught?

This is bullshit!——- I hate getting caught.

You only stopped me because I’m (insert group here)!——-Yes, I rolled through that stop sign in my tinted up hoop-de with the one headlight out, the door lock punched and a cloud of marijuana smoke emitting from the windows.

I’m just driving around——- I just came from the scene of a crime.

I only had 2 or 3 beers——-I’m drunk.

I was driving to the store when my old lady called and said that her friend needed to be picked up from the bar, but first I had to stop for some gas so I was going to the station over there when I saw my buddy…..——-Im a “verbal diarrhea” liar.

There are people killing each other out there and you guys are arresting me?——- I did it.

This car? This car belongs to my friends girl…I don’t know her name——- This car is a “crack rental”.

I think I’m having a heart attack! (while in a cell)——- I want to spend the night in a hospital bed instead of on a concrete slab with a roll of toilet paper for a pillow.

You didn’t read me my rights!——- I’m clueless about criminal procedure and really think that this means my arrest is invalid and you have to let me go.

 

 

the things worth believing in

 I like to resurrect this post every now and then to remind me why I titled this blog the way I did.

 

10 things about the entertainment industry that piss me off

Ask my wife and she will tell you, I can get out of control when I am watching any television show or movie about the military or law enforcement. The constant, recurring mistakes and misinformation that these industries put out just get in my craw and I have to yell “BULLSHIT!!” It makes me wonder, don’t these shows have advisers? If they do, what the hell are they getting paid for? Or is it that the directors think that they have better knowledge on these topics? The following are at the top of my WTF?!?! list:

1. Give me that before you hurt yourself:Cops and soldiers are constantly “racking” their weapons. I mean come on! I carry with a round in the chamber all the time. If I had to constantly rack my weapon every time I drew it there would be brass flying everywhere and my co-workers would think I lost my mind. I know that directors love the “click clack” of weapons being cycled but use your goddamn head! SWAT teams don’t stack up on a door and THEN load their weapons. FBI agents don’t have to charge their pistols after they draw them and they definitely don’t have to do it two more times in the same incident! Racking your shotgun just before you kick down a door is f$#%ing STUPID!! Going into an apartment after a serial killer, knocking on the door, hearing him run out the back and THEN racking your pistol and giving chase…F#$%ING STUPID!!!

2. Oh what the hell why not?:Every Tom, Dick and Harry stacking up with the SWAT team, I think not. If my blood pressure went up one mmHg every time I saw some “CSI”, “FBI Investigator” or “Detective” stacking up with the tactical team to go in and get the bad guy my head would F’n explode!

News Flash. If I saw some “CSI” getting in my stack on a high risk entry he would get a boot up his ass. No SWAT team leader worth is salt is going say…”OK you FBI Profiler with no tactical training I am aware of, or experience with MY team, go right ahead and get in the stack.”

The only thing that gets me more pissed off is when the SWAT team rams the door and Horatio Crane in his shades is the first guy through the door! Hello numbnuts director, the way it works is the SWAT team goes in ALONE!! and when its secure they call the eggheads and Detectives in.

3. Uniformed Cops as props:Every Detective/Profiler/CSI show or movie out there has uniformed cops as “background”. They walk aimlessly here there and everywhere with clipboards or magically appear to conveniently slap the cuffs on the bad guy that the dweeb from the “crime lab” ran down in a raging gunfight…please.

Or its the “dumbass uniform” who screws up the investigation that the star detective has to deal with.

Then…like in #2, when some “hot call” goes out I don’t know why TV cops bother to even show up. You know its the hot detective from the crime lab that is going to go in first and fight mano y mano with the serial killer. Where the hell the uniform cops went nobody knows, they just show up to haul off the bad guy to the station. They must have stopped in the kitchen for some coffee while the hero did all the work.

4. Hello I’m with the Gvt and I’m here to help:CSI and Criminal Minds…you always hear “were just here to help with your investigation, not take it over…” yet somehow its always some profiler that takes over the investigation and gets involved in the shooting or the apprehension. I know it wouldn’t be exciting if the agents sat in the office all day and the local cops were the ones making the arrests, but that’s how it is. By and large FBI agents are investigators, accountants, lawyers and lab techs.

And these CSI teams..it always impresses me how CSI works local, county, state, federal and hell even international cases. Who the hell do these guys work for anyways?

5. Kill em and Leave em:The “profilers” arrive like the cavalry…light up some scumbag and then hop back on their jet and fly off into the sunset. Yeah when an on-duty shooting happens that’s pretty much how it goes..no investigations, lawsuits or court appearances necessary. If you are “with the crime lab” or a “profiler” you can just holster up and walk away.

6. Nuclear Grenades: Some Delta Operator tosses a fragmentation grenade into a window and the whole floor erupts into a raging inferno of a fireball like a suitcase nuke just went off….uhhhhh…no. A loud BOOM! a puff of smoke and a lot of little bits of metal flying about is about it.

7. Crappy Salutes: Need I elaborate? Some of these actors salutes would make a Drill Sergeant break out in hives.

8. Weird Science:No we don’t have computer databases of every matchbook from every club in the tri-state area. No we cant piece a broken bottle together and get a fingerprint that comes back instantly to a known felon (that gets picked up in 20 seconds). NO DNA TESTING IS NOT A “WHILE YOU WAIT” PROCESS!

These shows have gotten so out of hand with their “stretching” of real forensic science that juries have been clearing criminals of their charges because the proof wasn’t “as conclusive as they see on CSI”. Prosecutors even have a name for this phenomenon. “The CSI effect”.

9. Tuck that thing in: Military movies where everybody is walking around with their “dog tags” outside their shirts. Or dress uniforms with improper ribbons or improper wear of a uniform. Come on guys there are books on this stuff. Read one! Then there are the hot women detectives in clothes so tight I can count the change in their pockets. Not that there are no attractive women in law enforcement, but if one of my subordinates came in with her cleavage and belly button showing she would be going home for a wardrobe change.

10. Cover me I’m going in:Nobody ever waits for back-up, sets up a perimeter or gets on the radio. It sucks to share the glory with some dumbass “uniform”. I’ll just go down into that basement with the serial killer in the “woman suit”, only pussy’s would back out and call for back-up.

I know, I know, its just entertainment, but it pisses me off… deal with it! Keep reading for my next installment. This is just me warming up.

 

cool webpage

 

http://www.magpul.com/

 

I could watch this webpage all day just for the images and quotes that run in the top frame.

 

where to find the time

Low Tech Combat has an excellent post on how to maintain your skills and fitness even with the conflicting demands we all face in todays busy society.

Training When Busy

Training can mean different things to different people. For readers of Low Tech Combat it will generally mean two things. Strength and conditioning training along with martial arts or fight training. Either or both of these areas will be neglected as we become busier as priorities are juggled around. In today’s day and age, the requirement to be able to fight off an attacker can seem far fetched and is really a luxury and past time that is easily dropped for many people.

For those who really enjoy training, when we skip sessions, we often feel really bad about it and can regret the decision later. Obviously, this is not really healthy. What I intend to do is list some things which make it easier to maintain our training when going through some busy periods in our lives. We can cut back on the time spent training whilst maintaining the benefits or even improve ourselves with less time!

Another good post over on Low Tech…check it out.

 

thirst for adventure

I am currently reading a book titled: Philosophy, Risk and Adventure Sports by Mike McNamee. In it he writes:

It seems humans now want safety, security, control and predictability in a lot of areas of life. We want technological risks to be as small as possible. Bridges, cars, atom reactors, aeroplanes, should be safe. We want other people to behave in a responsible and predictable manner in traffic and transport. At the same time people want to take risks. But risks should be taken in the right or relevant manner. We do not want to get hurt or die by uncontrollable and irrelevant risks. Risks must come in the right or relevant way. If I go climbing I want the rope to be secure, the equipment to be dependable. I know that there are risks in climbing but they must come in the right way, be relevant. And which risks are relevant? The relevant risks are those that can be predicted, controlled, mastered and dealt with by me through use of my skills. It is like the relation between truth and knowledge. My belief that it is snowing on the North Pole at a certain time may be right. But unless it is the snowing on the North Pole that causes my belief we do not say that I have knowledge. If I guess something and I am right my belief is true, but I do not have knowledge of it as such. Knowledge demands more than mere justified belief. In a similar manner my risk taking should berelated to the relevant risks in a certain manner. I think people need challenges of the right sort and they want to master risks, in a relevant way. This is typically what we do in nature or environments that pose definable challenges to us. I think we need to develop a society where this is possible.

I am reading this book because I at one time was an “Adventure Sports” type, climbing cliffs, rappelling off of bridges and jumping out of planes. I don’t participate in those activities anymore. Why? Well it’s not out of any fear of risk or physical inability, I just sort of grew out of it.  

For my own part I believe they were more of a “testing ground” than a hobby for me. I got into them in my early 20’s. That period of uncertainty between high school, college and the working world. That grey area in American culture between adolescent and man. These challenges allowed me to test my fears and my ability to face them. I think that they had a direct influence on the course of my life. Before I probably would have stuck to the “safe life” and lived a life of office work in a field I was competent in but didn’t “love”. Taking those risks allowed me to take other “risks” in my life. I enlisted. I changed my career path into law enforcement and found my calling.

I also like to read this stuff because so much “philosophy of sport” can be translated into self-defense and “warriorship issues”. How easily can the authors points about the differences between “truth and knowledge” be applied to those fields? How many people adhere to training protocols and”techniques” based on the assurances of their instructors that they will be effective? If the teacher has prevailed in combat because of his skill than there is “truth” to his words, but until you can apply them you will not have personal knowledge of that truth. That’s why training as close to reality is so important.

Likewise, the authors points about acceptable risk has direct application to self-defense. What risks are you willing to take? What sort of experience, training and equipment will give you the confidence to change that level of acceptable risk, and do you possess the “knowledge” that your training and tools will make any difference?